PSN began it’s Holiday sale last week with titles like Catherine finally reaching the $20 price point digitally, Retro/Grade in it’s first sale dropping to $4.90, I Am Alive hitting $7.35 and may more discounts. Even for non-PSN Plus Members. The Essentials Sales continues for a second week with the following sales:

Update: Showing that Sony is capable of adapting the Playstation Blog lets us know that the store has been updated with a few features

It’s also worth noting that a couple things have been updated in the PS Store navigation. We’ve incorporated some of your feedback and you can now filter Add-ons by game title and the Weekly Deals section has been placed more prominently. We hope these changes will help you find what you’re looking for.

Some decent titles. Long time members of PSN Plus will already have Simpsons The Arcade Game, showing what is in my opinion one of the more minor annoyances with the membership. We’ll lose the game after our subscription expires and there’s no way to participate in this sale if we’re really big fans of the arcade port (which is actually quite excellent if you haven’t tried it).

Journey is an interesting choice though I still recommend you save your money and buy the triple game collector’s edition that includes Fl0w and Flower. Pacman DX was a fantastic title that holds up even now. I haven’t heard similar praise for it’s brother in DX arms Galaga Legions. Still the demo was fun and it’s likely the only game I’ll be picking up this week. As I already own Duke Nukem ($2.50 in stores) and Metal Gear Solid Trilogy HD ($1.00 Door Buster). Quest for Booty is a great game and if I didn’t already have it on my UK account from the PSN Blackout I’d happily pick it up for $8. It’s short, it’s a touch linear, but it looks fantastic, controls great, and wasn’t over priced.

Are there any titles you plan to pick up or would like to suggest? How was Papa & Yo. The demo was interesting but not quite compelling enough to make me bite at $8 with my backlog. Care to try to convince me otherwise?

Spike TV today announced it nominees for its annual Video Game Awards show dubbed “VGA TEN” this year, celebrating it’s 10th year. Oly and I were honored to cover the event for you last year, and this year we are doing it again! The highly anticipated event is expected to draw a crowd of gaming fans from all over.

This year’s show will be hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, who’s recent appearance in last summer’s record breaking movie, “Marvel’s The Avengers” as Nick Fury is nothing short of awesome! He previously hosted the VGAs 3 times in 2005-2007.

“I’m thrilled to once again preside over the biggest night of gaming,” said Jackson. “And to all the gamers out there – you better circle the date right now and not make any plans that night – you don’t want to be that one guy among your friends who misses this show.”

This year’s confirmed musical talent will be Grammy award winning artists Linkin Park, performing “Castle of Glass” as featured in “Medal of Honor: Warfighter”, as well as a performance by Tenacious D.

Leading “VGA TEN,” with seven nominations each are “Borderlands 2″ and “Journey” Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed III,” is not far behind with six nominations while Bethesda Softworks’ “Dishonored,” EA’s “Mass Effect 3,” and Telltale Games’ “The Walking Dead: The Game” all have five nominations each.

Below are several of the nominees and categories for Spike TV’s “VGA TEN.” For a full list, please go to VGA.spike.com.

Journey, thatgamecompany’s most recent and largest project to date, represents three years of intense collaboration and growth for the small studio. As such, in conjunction with Santa Monica Studio, they have decided to release a retail version of their latest game: the Journey Collector’s Edition. It will be available at retail outlets across North America for just $29.99 on August 28.

Journey is a beautiful game. Not in the sense of graphic design, which is astonishing by the way, but also for how unique the concept is. Journey takes the standard applied rules of every game you’ve ever played and throws it outside the window. My advice to you is to buy Journey and experience it for yourself, as there are many things words can’t describe. Journey is one of them.